The 65 years ago this week radio listeners met Randy Stone, reporter for the Chicago

Star, and they joined him on his nightly stroll through the darkened streets of the city in the engrossing dramatic

series Nightbeat, though not technically a detective program. Nightbeat frequently dealt with crime, corruption, and murder, and it remains one of the brightest spots of the later years of the Golden Age of radio.

We've heard from this terrific series before on the podcast and today in honor of its anniversary

we'll hear two more episodes of the program.

Nightbeat was originally intended as a vehicle for big screen star Edmund O'Brien, who would go on to play Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.

An audition program was recorded with O'Brien bringing his trademark tough guy intensity to the lead role of Hank Mitchell.

O'Brien certainly isn't bad in that audition episode, which I'll put up on the podcast

Tumblr page for you to check out.

However, it was ultimately decided to go in a different direction with the character

and a new actor was selected for a second audition recording.

Instead of a film noir tone for the story and the lead character,

the second recording had a softer edge,

one that featured more humanity and more optimism, and giving the series that voice

and tone was actor Frank Lovejoy in the newly renamed lead role of Randy Stone. Frank Lovejoy was no stranger to radio.

Earlier in his career he played supporting roles on The Shadow, Gangbusters, and

Superman, and he played the title role on the Blue Beetle.

His career in movies was getting underway when he signed on to Star in Nightbeat. He had a well-received supporting turn opposite Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place, and in 1951, he would

star as Matsevedic in the big screen adaptation of I was a communist for the FBI.

Lovejoy played Randy Stone as a little weary and cynical,

after all the night shift would take its toll on anyone.

But he always gave Randy a shot of optimism and a dogged determination

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